1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stereoscopic image reproduction device and method, a stereoscopic image capturing device, and a stereoscopic display device, and in particular, to a technique for appropriately reproducing and displaying a stereoscopic image recorded in a three-dimensional image file.
2. Description of the Related Art
A stereoscopic image capturing device photographs the same subject from left and right viewpoints using two image capturing units (image capturing part) arranged left and right with parallax, acquires an image for a left eye and an image for a right eye, and records the images in a recording medium. The acquired left and right images are read from the recording medium, are input to a 3D display which can perform three-dimensional (3D) display, and are displayed such that the image for the left eye and the image for the right eye are visible separately with the left and right eyes. In this way, the images can be recognized as a stereoscopic image.
On the other hand, the 3D displays have various screen sizes, and the amount of parallax of the recorded left and right image may not be appropriate for the size of the 3D display on which the left and right images are reproduced and displayed. In this case, the degree of protrusion or recession becomes excessive, and there is a problem in that the images may not be recognized as a natural stereoscopic image.
In regard to this problem, in a reproduction device, an intermediate viewpoint image which should be viewed from an arbitrary viewpoint is generated from an image for a left eye and an image for a right eye. In this way, in order to generate an intermediate viewpoint image from a plurality of images of different viewpoints, it is necessary to obtain pixel correspondence between the images to estimate the depth.
However, there is a problem in that, when display is performed without causing eye fatigue (for example, parallax control), a depth range is not known. When performing such display, it is necessary to appropriately determine an observation distance along with the conditions of the viewing angle or the size of an imaging surface during photographing, the distance between the lens center and the imaging surface, and the like.
In order to solve this problem, JP2003-333621A discloses a technique in which information regarding the imaging size of a camera capturing an image and the distance between the lens center and the imaging surface is transmitted in the transmission of images of two or more viewpoints. According to this technique, information regarding the viewing angle during imaging can be obtained on the display side.